Man sentenced to prison after attack on disabled girl

A 62-year-old man was sentenced to prison Thursday, Sept. 11 in Weld County for an attack on a developmentally disabled girl.

A Weld County District Court judge convicted Cecilio Chavez this summer for sexually assaulting a girl nearly 12 years ago, according to a news release from the Weld Count District Attorney’s Office. On Thursday, Chavez was sentenced to serve 24 years to life in prison.

Chavez was originally convicted for the crime in 2003, and in 2004 he received an identical prison sentence in Weld County District Court, the release said. Chavez raped a girl near a ditch on the outskirts of Firestone on July 15, 2002. At the time he was 50 and the victim was 12, although witnesses testified that she only had the mental capacity of a toddler.

In 2013, a District Court judge granted Chavez a new trial for the case after the Colorado Court of Appeals ordered the release of records related to the case that the original trial judge had declined to release to the defense and the prosecution. He was re-convicted in June of sexual assault on an at-risk juvenile with force, a Class 2 felony.

Police originally arrested Chavez at the scene of the attack after a woman driving by saw him with his pants down near a young girl who was pulling up her underwear, the release said. The woman notified law enforcement who found Chavez sitting near the girl and her three siblings along Weld County Road 13 in Firestone.

“One of the children told police that Chavez lured them out of Onorato Park under the premise of seeing a puppy, then led them to an area near a ditch on the edge of town,” the release said. The three younger children testified that Chavez told them to go to Safeway and get a drink. When they turned back, they witnessed the sexual assault.

Chavez threatened to hurt the children when the victim’s younger brother tried to stop the attack, the release said. The boy was 7 at the time.

Senior Deputy District Attorney Christian Schulte and Deputy District Attorney Garrick Storgaard prosecuted Chavez’s case. Schulte also prosecuted the original trial in 2003.